The texts from Roman Catholic Lectionary recognize that in our deep hurts we are not alone and the healing Love of Christ is our gift in faith.
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| Cloud of witnesses |
The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us of the community of faith that supports our journey.
* [12:1–13] Christian life is to be inspired not only by the Old Testament men and women of faith (Heb 12:1) but above all by Jesus. As the architect of Christian faith, he had himself to endure the cross before receiving the glory of his triumph (Heb 12:2). Reflection on his sufferings should give his followers courage to continue the struggle, if necessary even to the shedding of blood (Heb 12:3–4). Christians should regard their own sufferings as the affectionate correction of the Lord, who loves them as a father loves his children.1
In the Gospel from Mark, Jesus is healer to a woman long separated from her community sandwiched in an account of reanimation of the daughter of a synagogue leader.
* [5:28] Both in the case of Jairus and his daughter (Mk 5:23) and in the case of the hemorrhage victim, the inner conviction that physical contact (Mk 5:30) accompanied by faith in Jesus’ saving power could effect a cure was rewarded.2
Mike Cherney finds it appropriate that today is the feast of St. Agatha, a young woman who endured tremendous abuse for her faith in the spirit of today’s passage as well as the previous chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews.
St. Agatha followed her vows as in today’s Psalm. I wonder if St. Agatha in her suffering recalled the earlier verses of the same Psalm, as Jesus did - My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why so far from my call for help, from my cries of anguish? My God, I call by day, but you do not answer; by night, but I have no relief. The Psalmist will end this prayer of despair with trust in what is yet to come. I am put to shame knowing the weakness of my own spirit. I see the insignificant matters about which I become concerned. I reflect on how small things, like bad flight connections, seem when viewing the bigger picture. I sense that our spiritual forebearers would not be particularly proud looking at how I respond.3
Don Schwager quotes “The long-suffering of parents,” by Peter Chrysologus (400-450 AD).
"Let us, if it is pleasing to you, speak for a moment of the pains and anxieties which parents take upon themselves and endure in patience out of love and affection for their children. Here, surrounded by her family and by the sympathy and affection of her relations, a daughter lies upon her bed of suffering. She is fading in body. Her father's mind and spirit are worn with grief. She is suffering the inward pangs of her sickness. He, unwashed, unkempt, is absorbed wholly in sorrow. He suffers and endures before the eyes of the world. She is sinking into the quiet of death... Alas! why are children indifferent to these things! Why are they not mindful of them? Why are they not eager to make a return to their parents for them? But the love of parents goes on nevertheless; and whatever parents bestow upon their children, God, the parent of us all, will duly repay." (excerpt from SERMON 33.2)4
The Word Among Us Meditation on Hebrews 12:1-4 underlines that we are not surrounded by theological propositions. We are surrounded by real human beings with real experiences of God in their lives. They form that great cloud that reminds us God is with us always. They tell us that holiness is possible. And they cheer us on in our race toward Jesus.
The holy men and women who have gone before us do something similar for us. They tell us that God has always been present and at work in the lives of real human beings. For instance, Abraham testifies that God is faithful. David tells us that God is merciful. Perpetua and Felicity show us how God gives us strength to persevere during persecution. John Bosco declares that God provides for all our needs. And of course, there’s the Virgin Mary, who tells us what it is like to bring Christ into the world.
This great cloud of witnesses isn’t made up only of celebrated heroes from the past. It includes your grandfather, who took you to Mass every Sunday, or your aunt Teresa, who was known for her generous hospitality. It includes your coworker, who serves at the homeless shelter, and your neighbor, who prays the Rosary on her morning walk.5
A post by Franciscan Media is a reflection that the scientific modern mind winces at the thought of a volcano’s might being contained by God because of the prayers of a Sicilian girl. Friar Jude Winkler enumerates the believers who are part of the cloud of witnesses in the Letter to the Hebrews. Witness to the point of death is the bar set by many. Friar Jude explains the work of faith in the saving of the girl reanimated by Jesus.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments on the effect of a paper written in the eleventh century. Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033–1109) wrote a paper called Cur Deus Homo? (Why Did God Become Human?) which might just be the most unfortunately successful piece of theology ever written. In authoritarian and patriarchal cultures, most people were fully programmed to think this way—working to appease an authority figure who was angry, punitive, and even violent in “his” reactions. Many still operate this way, especially if they had an angry, demanding, or abusive parent. People respond to this kind of God, as sick as it is, because it fits their own story line. Unfortunately, for a simple but devastating reason, this understanding also nullifies any in-depth spiritual journey: Why would you love or trust or desire to be with such a God?
Over the next few centuries, Anselm’s honor- and shame-based way of thinking came to be accepted among Christians, though it met resistance from some, particularly my own Franciscan school under Bonaventure (1221–1274) and Duns Scotus (1266–1308). Protestants accepted the mainline Catholic position, embracing it with even more fervor. Evangelicals later enshrined it as one of the “four pillars” of foundational Christian belief, which the earlier period would have thought strange. Most of us were never told of the varied history of this theory, even among Protestants. If you came from a “law and order” culture or a buying and selling culture—which most of us have—it made perfect sense. The revolutionary character of Jesus and the final and full Gospel message has still to dawn upon most of the world. It is just too upending for most peoples’ minds until they have personally undergone the radical experience of unearned love. And, even then, it takes a lifetime to sink in.7
The journey to wholeness is taken in the company of a great cloud of witnesses to God of loving mercy Who shares, through Jesus in all the details of our human frailty.
References
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(n.d.). Hebrews, chapter 12 - usccb. Retrieved February 5, 2019, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/hebrews/12
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(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections .... Retrieved February 5, 2019, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
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(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved February 5, 2019, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
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(2019, February 4). Mass Readings and Catholic Daily .... Retrieved February 5, 2019, from https://wau.org/meditations/2019/02/04/
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(n.d.). Saint Agatha - Franciscan Media. Retrieved February 5, 2019, from https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-agatha/
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(n.d.). Daily Meditations Archive: February 2019 - Center for Action and .... Retrieved February 5, 2019, from https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/2019/02
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